Pet Costumes: Don't Let the Fun Turn Sour!

Becoming a good colleague in the animal world

If I put on my glasses as a behavior consultant who bases her approach on ABA, that does not mean that I deny ethology, biology, neuroscience or cognition.
And quite the contrary! Knowing the main characteristics of breeds, their ethogram, knowing the cognitive abilities of dogs, understanding how they see the world with their nose, knowing what mechanisms are activated in their brain depending on the environment, understanding their hormones and their influences on behavior, and so on, all this allows me to be a better professional.

To start applying the Premack principle, a simple and effective idea is to make a list of all the behaviors that the target individual emits, from the most probable on the left column to the least probable on the right column.

In the end, if the action of giving a treat is perhaps not complex in itself, understanding all the theory behind it makes it possible to better consider this stimulus as a communication tool rather than as manipulation.

Using the word NO can have a bunch of different shades, sometimes it can be a positive punishment procedure, sometimes a positive reinforcement procedure, sometimes be an interruptor, sometimes be useless, sometimes be a cue, a reflex and probably a whole lot more, depending on our understanding of the fundamental laws and principles of behavior analysis, the effect the word has on behavior, and so on.While I admit using the word NO from time to time to interrupt problematic behaviors, I hardly ever stop at just using it.

At the other end of the leash

5 big objectives of a R+ certified parrot trainer